


An offering

by smaragdbird



Series: Terror Rare Pair Week [10]
Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 03:16:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21469171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Written for the Terror Rare Pair WeekAfter abandoning their sick, Little feels guilty. LeVesconte does not.
Relationships: Lt Henry T. D. Le Vesconte/Lt Edward Little
Series: Terror Rare Pair Week [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1542748
Kudos: 13
Collections: The Terror Rarepair Week 2019





	An offering

As much as he had hated the endless darkness during the winter, Little hated the summer even more. There was no escape from the light like an all knowing, never resting eye watching them. Or perhaps it was his guilty conscience than kept him awake, the knowledge that he had went against his captain’s orders and left those sick men to die. Good men, undeserving of their fate.

“You shouldn’t sleep alone”, LeVesconte said as he put his bedding down next to Little’s. “It’s too cold even now.”

Little didn’t reply. It would be easy to resent LeVesconte for the role he had played but Little knew he was just as guilty. And Crozier had told him to take the men and march south. Surely he would understand why they had needed to leave those men behind.

“It’s not your fault”, LeVesconte said, almost as if he had heard Little’s thoughts. “It’s not anyone’s fault.”

“We made the decision”, Little pointed out. “We are officers, we should’ve – “He choked on his words.

“We are only trying to survive”, LeVesconte’s voice was low and intense. “There’s no shame in that.”

“Doesn’t it matter how we survive?” There was no dignity in this, no mercy, no humanity. They had left behind a tin for each man but nothing to open them with. They hadn’t even told the sick men they were leaving. Maybe it would have been kinder to shoot them in their sleep.

“Who’s going to know how we survive?” LeVesconte asked. “We’ll tell that story, no one else.”

It was a simple picture he was painting, memoirs filled with lies to cover the bodies left behind – their comrades, their friends, their captain. A heroic tale of endurance and suffering, not the horror story enfolding around them.

“We are following the captain’s command”, LeVesconte reminded him. “He told you to live, didn’t he?”

Little nodded. 

“James said the same to me, before he died. He told me to live.” Sadness crept into LeVesconte’s voice and Little reached out to touch his shoulder, offering what little comfort he could. 

“He was a great man.” And the reason Little was here in the first place. He did not know whether to be grateful for it, or resentful.

“He was”, LeVesconte nodded. “And I need to survive so the world can know that. I need to survive because he didn’t.”

Little was envious of the conviction in his voice. Where other men had despaired, LeVesconte had found determination in his friend’s death. “Perhaps you’re right. There is no shame in survival.”


End file.
